Published Date: 11 June 2009
Manchester United have accepted a world-record £80 million bid from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese winger has long been a target for the Spanish giants, whose president Florentino Perez vowed earlier this week to do “everything possible” to take the 24-year-old to the Bernabeu.

A statement on www.manutd.com on Thursday morning, under the headline “Reds accept £80m Ronaldo bid”, reads: “Manchester United have received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.”

It went on: “At Cristiano’s request – who has again expressed his desire to leave – and after discussion with the player’s representatives, United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player.

“Matters are expected to be concluded by June 30. The club will not comment until further notice.”

The news is bound to be greeted with some scepticism by United fans who have repeatedly been told no deal had been agreed for the sale of Fifa’s world player of the year in the face of regular statements on the move from officials at the Bernabeu.

It was even suggested Ronaldo would be due a £20 million compensation fee from Real if the deal did not go through by June 30.

As it now seems a matter of when, rather than if a world record transfer will be completed, Sir Alex Ferguson might wish to explain why he has gone back on his famous comment in December last year that he would not “sell that mob a virus”.

It is the first time for many years United would have allowed a player to leave who they were not happy about losing.

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South Africa suucessfully defended a low score and beat New Zealand by 1 run in a match that went right down the wire in the Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s.

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South Africa suucessfully defended a low score and beat New Zealand by 1 run in a match that went right down the wire in the Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s.

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New Zealand (Kiwis) loses to South Africa by one run

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New Zealand (Kiwis) loses to South Africa by one run

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The Swiss superstar will play his 20th successive Grand Slam semi-final against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro on Friday.

Victory there, and then a triumph in Sunday’s final against either Robin Soderling or Fernando Gonzalez, would give the world number two a first Roland Garros trophy to add to his five Wimbledon, five US Open and three Australian Open triumphs.

It would take him level on 14 Grand Slam titles with his great American friend Pete Sampras.

The 27-year-old Federer has been here before, of course, having been defeated in the last three finals by Rafael Nadal.

But the Spanish clay court king was a shock last 16 casualty, while fellow rivals Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have also departed Paris.

Everybody here, including even the drivers and motorcyclists who pull up at red lights to grab a photo or an autograph, are confident that 2009 is Federer’s year.

“We’re all nervous,” said Federer, who will take a 5-0 career record into his clash with Del Potro on Friday.

“I felt it again in the warm-up (for Wednesday’s 7-6 (8/6), 6-2, 6-4 quarter-final win over Gael Monfils). I was tired, I was nervous, and I didn’t feel really good.

“I was nervous going into that match because of the whole story of Nadal losing, Murray losing, Djokovic losing, maybe opening up the draw a little bit.”

Only last month, many believed Federer would have struggled to get this far in Paris.

Many saw his tearful defeat to Nadal at the Australian Open, and then his early struggles in the clay court season, as damning evidence that the game was up.

But Federer never lost faith in his ability to mount another charge at a title in Paris, a mission that proved beyond even Sampras.

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Virender Sehwag was declared unfit once the team was in England and it was almost clear that he would be given the recovery time with Zaheer Khan till the tournament begins and thus no signs of playing in the practice matches appeared.

Also in the press conference, when Dhoni was asked about trying Rohit Sharma as an opener and will that be continued creating doubts over Sehwag’s role, MS replied ‘‘It is always good to have a problem of plenty and it gives us options for the opening slot’’.

Continuing the talk about Sehwag dilemma as an opener and Rohit’s fabulous performance at top of the order, MSD was asked what it will be once Sehwag recovers and is ready to return; he once again smartly stated, ‘‘it’s tough for me to comment on that. All I can say is I’m glad to have talented players who are performing in my side”.
There were similar questions every now and then during the conference but Dhoni maintained the tone on the topic by the kind of replies he made. The following excerpts will clear it more:

Q: Will he (Sehwag) be a certainty in the team when he returns?

MSD: ‘‘I said before, I don’t know when he will get fit. And whether he is a certainty once he gets fit, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see how the team is shaping up’’.

Q: So how long will it take for Sehwag to get fit?

MSD: ‘It’s a bit of a gamble with injuries. Maybe he will get fit for the game against Bangladesh (June 6) or against Ireland (June 10). I’m not really sure about it’’.

Now if we be positive on the whole issue, it indicates the stress on role clarity and avoiding controversial statements by MS Dhoni. On the other hand the speculation may make us count on the troubles of Team India once again after adding this latest inside rumour.

Whatever it is, we hope that these petty issues does not trouble the performance of the entire team and individuals involved in the issues resolve the entire matter through their performances leading their Team to retain the T20 World Champs Title.

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NEW DELHI: Leander Paes kept the Indian challenge alive by advancing to the men’s doubles final with Czech Lukas Dlouhy in Paris on Thursday.

The third seeded Indo-Czech combination took one hour and 48 minutes to down their fancied rival 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the semi-final match.

Paes and Dlouhy will now face Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Dick Norman of Belgium. The unseeded duo knocked off second-seeded Americans Bob and Mike Bryan 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the early semifinal.

It was sweet revenge for Paes and Dlouhy as they had been beaten by Nestor and Zimonjic in the final at Rotterdam in February.

Nestor and Zimonjic had won four of five clay events coming into Paris and Tuesday’s quarter-final win was their 20th on clay in their last 21 matches.

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NEW DELHI: STAR Cricket will telecast live all the 27 matches of the ICC World Twenty20, to be held in England from June 5 to 21.

STAR Cricket and ESPN will also telecast some preparatory matches before the event, where India will play New Zealand and Pakistan on June 1 and 3 respectively.

India opens its campaign against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on June 6.

There will be a 13-member commentary panel for the tournament with the likes of Ian Chappell, Wasim Akram, Sanjay Manjrekar, Nasser Hussain, Kepler Wessels, David Lloyd, Ian Bishop and Jeremy Coney.

The semifinals and the final of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, which will be played simultaneously in England, will also be shown live.

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ICC World Twenty20 2009 Schedule

The first match of ICC T20 World Championship 2009 will be played on Jun 5, 2009 between England and Netherlands. The Final will be played at Lord’s, England on Sunday Jun 21, 2009.

T20 World Cup Schedule, Twenty20 World Cup Match Fixtures

For complete fixture and schedule of matches including warm-up matches, group stage, super eight to the finals that are to be played in T20 world cup 2009, Visit the T20 page on the official ICC website at the following link:

http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/wt20-2009/fixtures.html 

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